The greatest war that Christ took part in and suffered, was the accusation against Him that He called Himself the Son of God. Christ had to suffer and people suffer too, so sufferings are inevitable whatever causes them. Why and for what does man suffer? If he suffers because of his sins, he deserves these sufferings, but if he does the Will of God and suffers as well, what is the reason for these sufferings and how are these sufferings to be understood? So there are two things that one should mind in his life: if he is to suffer for Truth or for his own sins. There is no greater suffering than to suffer for Truth!

I ask, what is Freedom. The bird is free when flying – if she cannot fly, it is wrong; a fish is free when it swims – if it does not swim, it is not right; fire is alive if it burns otherwise it is dead; the wind is doing its work when it blows – as soon as it stops blowing, it is not able to do any work, it is dead; water is alive and is doing its job when it flows – if it stops flowing, it is not capable to work, it is dead; and at last, man is free only when he thinks – if he would stop thinking, he loses his Freedom - so, the bird flies, the fish swims, the wind blows and man thinks.

Which is the first quality of thought? How does Life, in which we are, express itself? Through movement. So every movement goes along with feeling too. Imagine a man having only one sense, for instance the sense of touch and tests all things through it – if they are solid or soft, cold or warm, etc. If it were so, what could his idea about Life be? He would have a very elementary idea about Life. Imagine another sense appears – the sense of taste through which one perceives things as sweet or bitter, salty or sour etc. This sense provokes in man the desire to eat. And so, man eats for the only reason to taste things. The next after the sense of touch and taste is the sense of smell in man. Now he wants to know things from a distance or closely, to test how it smells – if it is pleasant or not. Next comes the desire in man to hear how living beings around talk and to discern between them. Hearing is of help here; and last comes the interest to see the outer appearance of things – man wants to see what has been written on each object and the sight helps him in this. Through these five feelings or senses man enriches his understanding about Life. So, by the sense of touch one tests the quality of objects; by the taste he understands their content; by the sense of smell he distinguishes different smells, good or bad. By hearing he studies the sounds of living beings and comes into relations with them. By the sight man studies the whole outer appearance of objects.

So, through his five senses man comes to meet the outer world around him. However, how can he know the Divine Love, how can he know God? Unless he can feel, man is not able to know God and to accept the Divine Love. So, if one cannot feel the Divine Love, he cannot think; if he cannot think, he cannot be free, he is dead. So, who does not have the Divine Love in himself, he cannot think, he is not free, he is dead, and via versa – if one thinks in a right way, he is free, he carries in himself the Divine Love.

Many people want to know the reasons for suffering. I say: there are many reasons for suffering. For instance, if someone’s head, chest and stomach are in good health and if one leg is bad, he will feel pain and will suffer; or if his hands and legs are healthy but his ear is not well, he also will feel pain and suffering. The painful conditions may cause inner disharmony in the organism and the inner disharmony is a result of that sinful condition, which one has done himself.

You say: “Why does man suffer?” – because he has gone away from God and does not know how to come back. And being away from God he is in a state of one who cannot walk on earth well – while walking he is slipping all the time and falling down. This happens to everyone who does not love God. The first man being put on the path of Love, manifested that he did not love God – through his first step on this path he slipped and could see his weakness. He had no Love for God, because he ate from the forbidden tree. People’s suffering today, manifests that they also do not love God. God said to Adam: “You must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil!” However, the black adept came to Eve and said: “If you eat the fruits of this tree, you will achieve a lot of knowledge and will become gods”; she felt convinced by his words, ate these fruits and gave Adam as well to try – and they realized that they were naked.

You want to know how this happened with the first man and woman – it happened exactly as this happens now with you. Every day you repeat what your ancient father did – what Adam and Eva had done in the past, today’s people do every day. And they create a wrong philosophy, saying: “We actually eat from the forbidden fruit but today and tomorrow we will make our life right.” No, this is a philosophy that does not exist, there is no philosophy for tomorrow – the true philosophy is for the moment of now. The very moment we go wrong, the day ends and the night comes. The tragedy of life is that people want to make right their things in the night. Imagine you walk through a dark black night – no star, no moon in the sky and you take the wrong way and say: “Well, I will find the way, anyhow.” What way can you find, don’t you see there is no ray of light and you are completely in the dark – you can only go a wrong way and not be able to find the right path.

People today often call to mind the story of the first people and say: “What were Adam and Eva thinking about?” Exactly the same as you are thinking about now. For example, someone who believes in God, is thinking: “I want to have a nice house, to wear nice clothes, to drive a nice car around the town, to be visited by rich people, but I have no money in my pocket.” And in a short time this man comes up to another’s safe full of gold coins. Now he is thinking: “If I take some of this money, my wishes will be fulfilled.” He is hesitating and fighting within himself and in the end he says to himself: “Who will see me if I take some of these coins only once and that is all and all my things will go well.” I say: the other’s safe represents the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. I ask if there is anyone whose things went well after he put his hand into someone else’s safe? No one. If one has done this he put his deeds in more troubles than before. Alas, one can walk near another’s table full of food and think: “If I eat of this food my things will be fine and my life will go better.” And he takes of someone’s food and his things keep being in the same condition.

I say: “It is necessary to consider in a right way the phenomena of Nature and Life. The present-day world, since it was created, is like a rich table full of food and lots of possibilities that lead into temptation. Everyone is in a hurry to sit around the table and take from the food. However, being in haste he can sit at one of these places of temptation and this is the very moment he loses his health. The same about books – there are books that you shouldn’t even touch. You pass by a book and think: “I will open it only to have look at it, to see what is written there.” This is the way soldiers behave at war: when walking to do a task to another army unit, one sees from a distance something flashing on the road; he thinks that someone lost a nice pocket knife or purse and he drops quickly to take it. However, it turns out to be a bomb and if you touch it, it would explode in your hands. I say: taking another man’s belongings is a bomb which will explode in your hands unavoidably. You need neither the knife nor the purse of your fellowman – you do not need anything that belongs to someone else. Whoever understands the law of Truth, will agree with this. God has put everything in its proper place so that no one could take away what He has ordered.

Many people think that if they go to a library they can rummage and take books without permission. No one can touch books or other things without permission. Nowadays people are very odd, because they do wrong things every day, rummage into other people’s safes and libraries, however they say to everyone they meet: “Let me tell you how to love God, how to love your fellowman and what to do for yourself.” They do not know what to do themselves but wish to teach others; they have not seen Angels or God but preach about God and Angels. However, when alone they ask themselves: “Is what we are preaching true?” I am only talking of a fact happening to you; the same happens to priests, to preachers and to governments as well. For instance, someone comes to power and says: “I will put Bulgaria in order.” How is he going to do this? If he would be able to, he would not become a minister first of all. Someone becomes priest and says: “I will put order in the world.” Who would be able to settle the world, would not become a priest. One can say: “I will become a man.” If you have not become a man yet, this will be more difficult in the future. To become a good man does not depend on you – He who has created you, only He has the right and the power to make you a man. If one gets rich and is not able to use his richness in a proper way, he will be in the situation of the donkey that has only to carry the burden of his master. If one becomes powerful and cannot use his power properly, he will be in the situation of the buffalo that is only pricking with his horns. In the true sense of the word, man is only one who thinks in a right way.

So, the first quality of a true man is Love. Without Love one is an animal – he will bring in his life only sins and crimes. And however he thinks and feels for his life as a whole, from the beginning till the end, there will be only sins and crimes. As soon as one is left by Love he will be exposed to sufferings. People without Love in themselves cannot stand the man of Love. If they meet him they say: “Let him out of here!” Isn’t this the way the Jewish people behaved to Christ? They said: “Take away this man, crucify him because he calls himself the Son of God.” The Jewish people wanted to subjugate Christ - some of them wanted him to make them happy, to help them to marry good women, to have good children, etc. However, Christ used to say: “I came to do neither My will nor yours but I came to do the will of My Father who sent Me here. I am the Son of God, sent to Earth to teach people how to live.” They did not feel contended with His reply and said: “Such a man who does not want to do our will, we will put on the cross.” Isn’t that same story repeating itself in the world today? Who has not crucified the Divine in himself? One can say: “There is some inner torment in me.” What is it? This is because you have lost your Peace. Whoever is not saying the truth loses the inner Peace. Most of the people today lie to each other. Also, many people do not admit the lack of Love and say: “We have Love but outer conditions and people around us cause us difficulties.” No, the outer conditions are not the reason for difficulties in Life but the inner conditions in men cause all sufferings, troubles and contradictions. Why does a hungry man suffer? Because he has not the inner food, which is the Word. Why does man suffer? Because he has no Love. Did Christ’s disciples suffer? They endured a lot of persecutions, victimizations and tortures but they did not suffer – they were great martyrs and endured everything because of Christ. They had the Love of Christ in themselves.

Whoever has not Love will not be able to endure even the slightest suffering.
You say: “If Christ comes on Earth for a second time, we will meet Him as we should.” If Christ comes on Earth now and if you have no Love in your hearts, you will put Him on the cross again. You will ask Christ for rich tables, for nice clothes and houses, you will want cars and cabs and if He will not satisfy your wishes, you will crucify Him as you did two thousand years ago. I ask if all your wishes be realized what would you benefit from this? What do kings benefit from having all their comfortable things, what happened to the Russian king who had possessed such richness? History gives us a good example through the life of one of the most ancient and wise kings, Solomon. He used to live in the best richness and glory with three hundred women with him and nine hundred concubines. God gave him a test how to learn God’s Wisdom and knowledge but he couldn’t pass it. He wanted, with these women as his secretaries and counselors, to sort out the world, to make reasonable laws. However, he didn’t succeed, he gave himself up to eating and drinking, to a rich life and thus he only threw the world into more confusion. Due to this fact the Jewish people have not been able to sort out themselves yet. I say: if one wants to marry, he should have only one woman. Who is she? – Love. Who has no Love, he cannot become a man. A woman, who wants to marry, needs one man. Who is he? – Wisdom.

So, who will not accept God’s Love, he can have, like Solomon, three hundred women and nine hundred concubines but he will not be able to do anything. The number 300 presents the extreme limit in one’s Life – no one can have more that three hundred women. It is enough for him to have a quarrel with each one of them and he will be like an empty barrel. And what do people do with empty barrels? You know – they take them outside and roll them. One can say: “I am going to marry”- this means he wants to go away from God. Many of the marriages today are related to evil. If you understand by marriage as matching two sensible souls, this makes sense. People today want to marry and to be happy. No, if one will marry, he should cherish to find God – one should look for God in his every wish. Someone can say: “I wish to eat” – so you have the wish to find God through food and to know the Love of God. As soon as one can find God and know His Love, he will achieve everything. You say: “We know God, we have seen Christ.” You may have seen Christ but man does not benefit from such a vision. He can see many things but the important thing is the way he sees them. It is likely if one’s leg is in pain and he can know this; however, but this is not enough, one should know the reason for this pain. If one knows the reason for his pain, he can heal it.

There is one important question nowadays people have to answer: Did the fruits in the ancient times fall down from the trees? At the beginning of their life they didn’t – they were on the branches until someone would come and pick them. However, after the fall of man the fruit also began to fall, for many reasons, because of the wind or something else. So, until man is a fruit on the Divine tree, until he lives a pure and holy life, he will have the Love of God in himself and will never fall down from this tree – he will be on it forever. If he has no Love, he will fall down from the tree like a rotten fruit and will get dry. What will happen with man then? Someone who will know nothing and will be more foolish than him will come to teach him how to believe in God, how to repent, how to turn to God, etc. What does it mean to turn to God? If one turns his face to the world and his eyes are opened to it but he has no Love in himself, he will succumb to temptation.

How and why are people from the world being tempted? A young woman looks at a young man and likes him and immediately wants him for herself. And visa versa – a young man meets a beautiful girl, likes her, wants her for himself. The temptation comes through the desire. There is nothing wrong if the girl likes the man or if the man likes her but the very wish to have him as her husband and the wish for her as his wife, that is wrong. And they begin to go after each other, to be jealous and so on. Who has given the woman and the man the right to keep an eye on each other, to follow each other as the shadow follows the man? They should know first of all that what they are looking after is the shadow and not the person. If I have a candle in my hand and you follow it, what would happen to you? Imagine the candle burns down – what will happen to you? You will lose sight of me and will fall into darkness again. That reasonable thing in man you are looking for is somewhere behind the candle where your look cannot reach. The Sun is rising up and you can see its light, however, like the candle, you have not yet found that reasonable thing in man, which means that you have not reached the Truth held by Sun.

Your wish is nothing but a lit candle, held by some reasonable Being. You run after this wish, i.e. after this candle and as soon as it burns you lose your wish. And you feel shame later for not being able to achieve it. This happens to everyone who falls in love in this foolish, fleeting way. After some girl has been with her beloved, with her love, she was feeling ashamed to say where she has been, so she says instead: “I went somewhere”. She does not dare to say she went to her love. Why? Because she went to see what he was doing, whom he was meeting, etc. She worries whether the candle he is carrying will burn soon and if she will find herself in the dark again. The same happens also to the young man – because of the same reasons he does not say that he is going to his love.

I draw now an inner conclusion about things to help you to see where unhappiness in Life comes from. For example, an idea comes into someone’s mind to build a house; he begins to think that if he will do this all his things will be all right. And he is thinking about this house all the time. I say: “God has given everyone a nice, well built house. What would you like more? What better house can exist than the human body? If with this house given to you by God, you are not able to become human beings, you will be less human with houses made from stones and bricks. You say: “I would like at least to earn some money, to become a rich man and all my things will be all right.” If you are looking for riches – what bigger riches than those given to you by God? He has given everyone inner riches. If you cannot be a man with the inner riches, given to you by God, you cannot become a man with your outer riches. The idea that people’s happiness is in the houses, in the outer richness – these are delusions one should release. Delusions are the lures in the world and you should stay far from them.

As I watch people all round the world I see them as slaves of their ambitions. They are like gunpowder – if you touch them they flare up right away. Everyone has a high opinion of himself. It is not bad, only you have to prove it. I go near somebody and say to him:

- Your clothes are dirty and not good.
- It is not possible, it was costly some time ago!
- Well, but not now.
- How can you offend me!
- You can feel offended but I am telling you the truth.

I say to someone else:
- You do not think at all.
- It is not possible, I have a mind!
- Well, you have it and you were thinking well before but now your mind is not good and you cannot think in a right way.

To another one I say:
- You do not have Love in your heart.
- How it can be, my heart is burning with love and you say I have no love.
- Well, it was before but now it is only fuming.

You used to say: “When Christ comes, everything will be all right.” What will Christ find on Earth when he comes here? He will find minds that glimmer and hearts that fume. It is not enough for you to wait for Christ to come to put a garland on your head, to take you on a chariot and go to Heaven, and to say: “Here is a man amongst the great people on Earth who was a reformer and was ruling the world.’ The words of Christ must be truth. If Christ would say something like this about someone, he should really be such a person. No one should think he is a great preacher or reformer, or majesty. What is important for man is to do God’s Will as a Son of God despite the situation he is in – whatever God would order him to do, he should do. And whatever he does, he will carry it with himself through times and eons. Is it necessary for the apple tree that gives fruit to be recommended by people? Its fruits are its recommendations – the apple tree with its heavy fruits is saying: “I did what God ordered me.”

And someone will come to me to ask if he is a believer or not; if he has found the Path or not. You must know this by yourselves. If you suffer, you are already on the Path; if there is dust around you, you are following the Path. The dust represents the temptations in the way – you should understand all these things. Everyone goes the way but falling down and getting up. When he falls down, it means he is being expelled from Paradise. He prays and repents and the next day he will be accepted in Eden again. He goes the right way for some time and when he does something wrong – he is put outside again and after he cries and prays – they accept him later. The same way Adam sinned and appeared to be out of Paradise. He went down to hell where he cried, repented until he was accepted into Eden again. Since Adam had sinned, he had been in Paradise and out of it many times - in the morning he stays in Paradise, in the evening he goes to hell. Nowadays people are also in Paradise in the morning, being joyous and when they do something wrong, they are cast out of Paradise down to the hell. They cry there and pray – and they are accepted in Paradise again. This story is repeated again and again until the day comes when man will no longer do wrong and will keep his place in Paradise. Teach one now how to live and put him in Paradise and after some time he goes wrong and finds himself in hell in the evening. When a man cannot keep his place in paradise, he says: “Well, I couldn’t go right this life but the next time I will. I see I was not able to stay on the Path so I would like to marry, to set up my things at least.’ God had not sent you to Earth to marry. “Well, I would like to be rich at least.” God has not sent you to Earth to accumulate riches –richness and marriage come later. God has sent you to learn – to acquire Love.

I say: if you see Life through the eyes of Love, you will understand the meaning God has placed in it. Life is meaningless without Love. For instance, the stones that surround us have meaning only in connection with Love – without it they are just ruins. When you climb up some of these rocky peaks around you, it is possible to fall down, hurt yourself and then you will say: “These stones are so bad!” As soon as you look at them from a distance, you will see their beauty and if you fall you say they are bad. They are bad because God has not created them - the ruins around you are not Divine creatures. I mean by the word stone a reasonable being who has the characteristic of Love. If you fall down on a stone that has love in itself, you will be taken gently in his hands, will be put next and will be told: “You fall in a good way, you have learnt the art of falling.” And you will say to the stone: “And you can catch one very well and protect him from being hit.” However, if you fall on some of those other stones you will hit your leg and will be told: “Who gave you the permission to jump on me? If you can do this, I also can hit someone’s legs.”

So, I would like you to keep the thought that suffering in your lives is due to lack of Love. This does not mean that you have no Love but that your love for your desires is stronger than the Love for God. The example about the young woman and the young man can make my thought more clear: she wants to serve God, however, as soon as she meets some young man whom she likes, she leaves God because of him. And vice versa – the man wants to serve God and when he meets a girl, he follows her and leaves his ideal behind. Eventually they can get together and marry because they want to help the world. How can they help the world – they both are unhappy and their things go bad.

This situation is similar to the next example: two crippled people are in hospital, their legs amputated. The one tells the other:
- I am thirsty, can you get up, please, and give me a glass of water!
- How can I do this, my legs have been amputated. You go and bring me too!
- So am I in your situation too.

I ask who will help whom. This shows that the Good in the world has not been applied completely. So, the young man follows the beautiful girl, however she is like an empty purse. She is pretty and nice physically, but inside there is nothing. The young man is like an empty purse as well. Why do you need empty purses in your life? Life does not need the forms of the purses but their content. The gold coins in the purses mean the inner riches of man. I say: if people’s wishes have any content, they are in their right places. And only when the Divine, given to you by God, is Life’s content, Life is meaningful.

Some of you now who are at the bivouac, say: “Let’s go up the mountain!” By the word mountain, high peak, I mean the reasonable principle in Life. And when we climb the mountain to know what God wants from us, this will be meaningful. And when we go down to the valley to bring what we have achieved on the mountain, this will be meaningful. So if we go up to God no taking anything from Him and when going down amongst people for giving them nothing, we are people condemned to suffering.

An important question asked by many people today is: Why did Christ come on Earth if He knew He would be crucified? No one among ordinary people wants to be crucified. Anyway, everyone who comes into the world among people to preach a new idea will be crucified in the end. What should you do with the ideas you preach to people? You have to appeal to God and He will put you in a more advanced society that will understand you and say: “A prophet came among us.”

One can say: “I love God.” If you say this you will be tempted to think you are righteous and know everything, that you can heal many illnesses and can do all you want, etc. It is a delusion to think like this. One who has Love inside should know that Love itself does not cure people neither gives riches but only makes a connection between people and God. When man makes a connection with God, he will solve all the problems immediately. However, Love itself does not give anything.

It happens that one comes to me and says: “You do not love me.” “Well, the truth is, when I sleep I do not love you.” “But you have to!” If you want to know if I love you, you need to know first of all if I love God. If I love God, I will love you too; if I do not love God, I will not love you. Life begins with the love for God. The Love for God is an inner, mystical relation. Life is meaningful only with God; out of Him Life is meaningless and is a mass of contradictions. And whoever you love then will tell you: ”I do not need your love.” For instance, you say: “I love the king.” Why does the king need your love – he does not suspect even that you love him. Or, you can love a saint and keep his portrait in front of you and look at it the whole day. However, there are saints who are not saints at all, they themselves wonder how people have announced them as saints and have put them in the churches to bow to them. Only the person who holds inside himself living Love and in whom God manifests Himself, can be a saint. One can think he is righteous and knows everything, and that he is a saint, but I say: to think you are a saint is one thing and to be really like this, is something else.

As I am talking about this to you now, there is something hidden inside you that tells you: “Do not listen to him, this is not exactly the truth that he is talking to you.” This whispering comes from entities that seduce you and have no understanding about Life. They are telling you: “Is it possible for one to live without money? First of all, we have created money and one should live for it because it will save him.” I ask, where have these beings taken this gold from? It is obvious; as if they had robbed God and have put their name on this gold. No, this is not truth. Gold belongs only to God. When Christ was asked if it was necessary to pay a duty to Caesar, He answered: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” . So, something that is God’s, someone used it and put his signature on it and presented it to people as its own. The verse: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” I translate this way: give your delusions to people, tell the Truth only to God and keep Love. What do people do? They tell the Truth only to themselves.

Today I want to remind you of something you used to know and were told about many times. For instance, you often ask yourselves: “When will we save ourselves, when will we achieve our desires?” And when you do not achieve what you want, you say: “This is hard work!” No, this is the easiest one. As long as your love for things that are temporary and transient is stronger than your love for God, you will be always in the transient and temporary life and will not achieve what you want. And you will get older untimely, will prop up on sticks and will say to yourselves: “Oh, we have already got old.” I say: when one is getting old, he is getting poor as well. However, the word old age means, in its right sense, achieving of experience and in the Scripture it was said about it: “Whoever relies on God, he will rejuvenate and his body will renovate.” Who lives in God is never getting old and achieves Eternal life. Christ said: ‘This is life Eternal, to know Thee, the Only very God.’ Who knows God will never get old and will never die.

People now have things before them that are passing, so they say: “Why has God created the world as it is?” I will give you an example to help you to explain who has actually created this world. So, someone made a nice pigsty for his pigs and fed them few times a day and you went to see as he was feeding his pigs. I ask if you need to be angry for he didn’t make such a nice place for you too? Do you need to be angry that this man didn’t give you food? People watch the world now and look at the pigs eating from their wooden bowls and say: “It is wondering why has God created the world like this and some people have what to eat plentifully and others have to strive?” I ask what kind of philosophy does your complaining contain? This world, where, according to your opinion, some people eat plentifully and others have to strive had not been created by God. Someone goes in a car, drives around the town and you feel angry that you have not got such a car. You do not need this car – it is like pig’s wooden bowl where they eat from. You better walk by yourself than go into such a car – if you do this you will not be a man. It is all right when pigs eat from their bowls but it is out of the right order of things if you feel jealous of them for that.

By the word wooden bowl I mean all man’s unnatural thoughts, feelings and wishes that lower his worth. One should be strict with himself about this and say: “As I see the food eaten by the pig, I am glad she is satisfied and I shouldn’t be angry that I don’t have her food – mine is different.” Would the pig be jealous of the man? As she sees man’s food she would only say: “This food is not for me.” Therefore, one should not take part in deeds that lower his worth.

You say: “Let us go and raise the world!” What would happen to you? When you die, there will be a nice tombstone and the words on it: “A great man, such and such, who wanted to make the world right, is resting here.” Is God interested about someone who eats several times a day and drinks and does nothing useful in Life? What will he do if he is only digging? If one diverts people’s heart from their path and put them later in the earth, what good has he done? You can say that one contributed a lot for people because he taught them how to pray, how to read Lord’s Prayer and how to understand it. The most important thing is whether you yourself believe in our Father?

A poor man went to a preacher who told him:
- You have to pray, to read the Lord’s Prayer.
- How can I pray when I have not eaten anything for three days!
- First you have to learn how to pray and God will feed you later.
- You are not the first person who advises me how to pray. Ten preachers had taught me and I am still hungry.

This person had prayed and waited for God to come and feed him. No, you who teach him how to pray, invite the man into your home and tell him: “We will eat first and after that will read the Lord’s prayer together.” You read: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive our debtors” but you do not believe in these words, why? Because you are at odds with the people close to you and cannot forgive them; you also feel angry and discontent because of others who are rich, educated, etc.

So, when Christ came on Earth, He suffered for the sins of people in order to save them. It means that the righteous man has to suffer to save the sinful one and this is one of the greatest secrets in Life. What will your inner professor say about these words? He will say: “It is hard work, who among the righteous will come to save us? As we can see, we will prove nothing, we have tried for many years and have achieved nothing. It would be better for us to go back into the world. We got old and cannot climb the mountains any more, to renew, to develop. God is merciful, even if we go wrong, He will save us one day.” It is the truth that no one will stay unsaved, because God’s desire is to be known by everyone. However, the salvation will come through the law of Love. The day you love God, the burden will fall down from your back. Unless you love God, you will lose your salvation even if you achieve it. Man will need to struggle a lot for a long time until he is ready to be saved and to accept the Divine. And then he will become powerful and will not lie, will not feel alone and will have lots of brothers and sisters.

I say: today’s man wants to have at his disposal servants and slaves – and why? To carry his burden. He has taken a lot on his back and because of not being able to carry it, he says: “Let someone come and help me!” And a servant comes, and another one, a third, and a fourth – they try to take up the burden but without success, it remains as it is. This is because it can be done only when there is mutual aid and they work all together. Many people think: ”How will my affairs go this year?” They will go well, if you love God.

So, I say both to young and to old people: you should first of all be such a reality by yourselves that nothing from the outside world could shake or move you. If there is a force able to remove the Divine from within you, it means you have no Love. There are thousands of trees around you, do not touch them, do not cut them but say: ”We can live without them – life is not outside but inside.” You have had many experiences about this. Can you show me, for instance, who among the young women is happy after she has sacrificed her sacred, Divine idea because of some young man; or can you show me a young man who feels happy after he has sacrificed his sacred idea because of a woman. When a woman says to a man she fell in love with him, he should take her to his father and say to her: “If you love my father and he likes you, I can marry you.” The same should be about the woman – if a man tells her he loves her, she should say to him: ”I would like you to meet my father and if you love him, I will agree to marry you; otherwise I will not give you my heart – there were many young men who lied me and I do not believe them any more. The same happens to your every thought or feeling you like, you should first present them before the eye of God for His approval and if He says they are good, then you can keep them inside you. Of course you can also choose not to do this but you will delude yourself and will suffer. You will not be able to know who is talking to you, who is whispering and imposing thoughts and feelings to you.

An English preacher went to the office of his friend, a rich tradesman and began to teach him; “It is necessary to serve God!” He suddenly heard a voice behind him: “Beyond doubt!” He turned and saw a parrot. It seemed the parrot had repeated: “No doubt, we have to serve God!” The preacher liked the parrot and asked if he can buy him. The man agreed and sold the parrot for two hundred and fifty English pounds. The preacher took the parrot home, showed him to his wife, and told her: “You know, this parrot approves that it is necessary to serve God and the meaning of life lies exactly in this service.” One day the preacher made a big mistake and said to his wife: “You know, I made a great foolishness.” The parrot repeated again: “No doubt!” So, what is the parrot? It is nothing but the conscious of man giving an opinion about good and evil, what one thinks, feels or does. The man’s conscious shows him where and when he can hesitate or suspect. For instance, one can hesitate about Love or hesitate about the lack of love, on the other hand and this is something different.

I say: everyone has a professor within who teaches him every day what to do and what not to do. This professor can say to you, for example: “One who wants to become a man and to impose respect to people should be strict, sullen, dissatisfied, etc.” If you listen to this, you will feel sorrow, sadness and you will suffer. I ask, why do you feel like this, there are no reasons for suffering. – “But I feel sad.” Why? You have these feelings because you ate a hen yesterday, which is still in your stomach and is crying there, because you ate it without Love.

Someone complains that after being married for only a year he feels he is not able to live with his wife anymore. This man has really made a great mistake being married with no Love. When he married his wife, he was not loving her and he is complaining today that she does not understand him and wants all her needs to be satisfied, but he is not able to do this and has to steal. I ask what makes one steal? These are the ravenous human desires that make one steal and commit many crimes. There are wishes committed to man every day and make him lose his peace, his high, light thoughts, and feelings. One can say: “There is nothing wrong in desires.” No, human’s wishes are good, it is not good that man’s love for his wishes and desires is greater than his Love for God. Due to this one loses the meaning of Life.

I am clearing now the false side of Life. If you understand it you will comprehend the right side. And you will know that one’s salvation depends only on Love. The moment your love for God becomes greater than the love for your wishes, you will be in the realm of eternity. And if you fall into hell, it will be enough to grip on the machine that produces Light and you will be out of hell. Your enemies from hell will grip you too but you have to be still and keep getting up. As the light becomes stronger you will feel free and your enemies will leave you – until you free yourself completely. While moving up your Love becomes much stronger. As soon as you free yourself you will say: “Thank you God, I am free now and no one can torment and pursue me.“ So, if you have no love within, everyone can get on your back and suck you like a bug.

You say: “We want to know if Christ loves us or not.” Christ has already proved if He loves us or not – what is important now for you is to prove your own Love for Christ. It is important now to check if your love for your wishes is stronger or weaker than the Love for Christ. And do not feel flattered when someone loves you or not but tell yourself: “The most important for me is that my Love for God is stronger than the love for this man.” You shouldn’t also feel worried about your money if it is gone or your house has burnt. It is important that your Love for God is stronger than money and the house, than all material goods and wishes. The real benefit in Life is in people’s Love for God – when they love God, they will benefit. You can not lose in this Love.
So, the Love for God is the great Truth in Life. Who agrees with this philosophy should apply this love in his life and his things will go right. When Love comes into the human soul, the true Life will begin. The world will go well when people start applying this Love.

Today’s people live in a world that is closed, locked like the life of the egg in the shell. They neither know what will happen to them, nor what their things will be. Many people ask themselves: “How will the world get right, how and when will our things go well?” It depends on you – if you love God, he will put you under His brooder and in twenty one days you will make a hole in the shell and will go out of the egg, will look at God’s world and will be free. If you achieve this Freedom, you will be free from fear as well. He, who has got out of the shell, has set himself free from suffering, so he will not fear anything. This is the meaning of the words born by God. Such a birth is the right one – it brings the blessing of God.

One can ask: “Was God amongst Adam and Eve when they sinned in Eden?” What do you think, would the first human beings sin if God was next to the Tree of knowledge of good and evil? The very fact that they have sinned means that God was not there. They yielded to temptation because their Love for God was weaker than their wish to gain knowledge and to become gods. This is the obstacle of people today. Love for God should be understood as an inner meaning – it shouldn’t be expressed through words only but through pure, enlightened thoughts and feelings and high acting. This is the only way one can be strong and powerful. The happiness of the powerful man lies in the Divine – the whole world has been created according to this law. It applies to Angels, people, animals. Animals are far from this law, but the Divine has also been put into them yet unexpressed. Man has been placed in a realm where the law of Love needs to be learned, so whatever you do must be penetrated with Love. The idea of God should be in your mind, in your heart, will, soul and Spirit. All your things will go in a right way if you consider the Love for God. Without this Love you will suffer a lot. People’s suffering indicates hell – where God is absent, hell is there.

As I watch today’s people I see them as they laugh at each other. There were American millionaires who went bankrupt and decided to meet for a treat, and everyone was to wear the shabbiest clothes they had at home. As they saw themselves in this funny and pitiful situation, they began to tease one another: “How nice your dresses are, you couldn’t find something like this anywhere!” “And your shoes – look, they are so smart!” “And look at the hat of that one – he is like a prince!” So they were joking and laughing at each other the entire night about their shabby clothes and wondering how all this had happened. The people today also are likely to sit down and discuss the facts of the life of this and that man, saying: “He is such a sinner!” But what about you – are you less sinful than him?

Another situation in people’s life can be illustrated with an example. In an ancient kingdom the beggars organised a large partnership of beggars, of poor people who set up some goals in their life. When the king learnt about this association, he gave them part of his riches. The beggars were informed about the king’s decision and they met together at a feast to divide the money among themselves. All of them came to the meeting well dressed but with the beggar’s sticks in hand. As they saw each other with the sticks, they smiled and said: “We know what we went through to achieve this state. Thanks to our sticks we deserve these new nice clothes.” Which one of the two situations is better – to put on your shabby clothes like the American millionaires or to put on the best clothes like the beggars? The second state is preferable. The beggar should put on nice clothes and take away the beggarly ones.

I ask what the beggar’s shabby clothes present. They are the man’s wrong conditions. So have as a task for today, to make no mistakes in order not to be expelled from Eden. You are in front of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil now and ask if you can go to Paradise. You are in it and it is up to you not to eat from the fruits of this tree in order not to be expelled away.

You can say: “God will help us, He knows everything.” Yes, He knows, but the important thing is what you know. “God is merciful.” Yes, it is the truth, but what about you? – “God is Love.” Yes, God is Love and He loves all of you, but what about your Love for God? - “God will give us His Love.” This is begging and you can do nothing in this way. You should not be beggars, begging is laziness. This means that someone relies on others to work for him and he can only remain waiting and wanting to be given this or that. If people want the world to be right, all the preachers, bishops and rulers should take off their rich garments and put on aprons to get down to work to be in the service of other people. The world is not going to be put in order while present day people wear their parade clothes, have crowns on their heads and wait others to work for them. Also, mothers and fathers should behave in the right way. You can meet now a mother carrying her child in her hands and saying: “This is my child, I gave birth to him.” You meet her the next day crying because her child has gone to the other world. How could it have happened if the child was hers? You can also meet someone boasting of his richness; the next day it disappears, he was robbed. How has this happened? His riches went where they belong. – “The devil robbed me!” I say: only someone who was your partner can rob you.

I would like you now to understand my thought in the right way because I show you facts and experiences from Life itself. By talking to you about the devil, I mean the temptations you meet on your path every day. You need to be very careful to keep away from them. You ask: “Have you seen the devil?” I do not want to see him neither to have any partnership with him. When I meet him on my path I will ask him:” Have you learnt how to love God?” –“Is there God in the world?” – “Go your way, I do not want to deal with you!” He wishes to lie and that is why he asks if there is God or not. He asks me: “Is there Love in the world?” – “Go your way!” – “Is Life meaningful?” – “Go your way!” He wants to come and to teach me if there is God or not, is Life meaningful or not, etc. I do not need his philosophy, let him go his way! If one comes to the point to discuss the existence of God from reasons to consequences, he will be finished – he will come to nothing and will be dispelled away from Eden; you have lost God you knew before and now you can do nothing but to go your way.

An unbeliever went to an American preacher and said to him: “Prove to me the existence of God!” The preacher caught him and beat him. – “Please, brother, oh, God, leave me! There is God in the world, have mercy on me!” I do not want to laugh at you now only to say that you are often in the situation of this unbeliever. Unless suffering will come to you, you will keep going to some high Spirit to ask if there is God or not. As soon as suffering comes to you and you are being beaten, you say: ”Oh, Lord, have mercy on me, yes, there is God!” If you deny God and do not believe in Him, suffering comes; as soon as you accept Him and believe in Him, suffering disappears. If you ask if there is Love, suffering comes again. – “Does God love me?”- this is the doubt in you. You do not need to have any doubt about God but see if Love for God is greater than the love for your wishes. If the Love for God is weaker than your wishes, your deals will go wrong; if your Love for God is stronger all your things will go well. Compare your Love for God and for your wishes every day to understand what your success and failure in life are due to. There is no other settlement of the things. If you look for another solution you will have more problems. You do not need to stop before temptations in order to understand them – when it comes, just say: “Go your way!”
I say: if you keep on this endless philosophy of discussing, which does not lead you to positive results, you will be in the situation like a Bulgarian during the Turkish yoke, who used to boast about himself before his fellow-villagers, about knowing everything including the Turkish language and he used to say he could even speak to the sultan. One day a Turkish Bey came over to the village, so he needed someone to translate for him. That man was asked to do the translation. However, he was not able to understand what the Bey was telling him and made the wrong translation. And when he went into the room the Bey has a fight with him and told him: “You should learn the language properly; you do not speak good Turkish!” When the people waiting outside asked the man why he had been fought with, he said, because of the fact he out-spoke the Bey. No, one can be beaten only when he doesn’t know what he is saying and how he says it. And after all this, one says he is suffering for God. Man suffers because he does not know how to speak - this is the truth.

Someone can say: ”Why do I need to dispute with people if they do not understand me?” Can you show me at least one person in the world who has been understood by other people? There is no such a man. Christ did not say that people didn’t understand him but said: “This is the Will of God.” Pilate told him: “Do you know I possess the power to crucify you and the power let you free?” Christ answered: “Every power has been given by God. It was given to you to test Me but I am not from those people who decline – I am ready to bear all consequences. My Love for God is so great that I can bear this cross.” As you know, Christ had to bear so much suffering and humiliation but today’s people want to live their life without any suffering. Well, it is possible to avoid suffering, but when? When one will love God with all his soul, with all his heart, with all his mind and power, and to work consciously to transform suffering into Joy, i.e. to bear suffering and sorrow with Joy. If man will not Love God, his suffering will be unendurable burden for him.

Let’s now come back to the main point – the Love for God. Many people ask constantly: “Does God love us?” You will test this from the first to the last day of your life. However, you will test yourselves too. If your Love for God is stronger than your wishes, you are on the right path. However, if the Love for God is weaker than your wishes, suffering and contradictions will be unsolved in your life. The Love for God is a mystical, inner experience, which one person understands in one way and someone else - in another way. The magic power of this experience is the moment when man directs his mind, heart and soul to God without hesitation and doubt. When one achieves this moment, he can do anything. Only then can he understand the meaning of Life – only God can reveal the meaning of Life. If you hold in your hand a seed deprived of soil, of moisture, of light, of warmth and air, how can it grow? How can you understand what kind of fruit the seed has without giving it the conditions to grow, to bloom and to give fruit? Out of these conditions you will not be able to understand the seed. According to the same law every thought, every feeling and every wish can grow only with God’s Love and Warmth, and only in these conditions will you see their power. Therefore, every thought, every feeling and every desire are seeds where God’s Love and Wisdom are. And these seeds are waiting for the good conditions to grow.

So, whatever I am telling you now, unless you come to love God you will never understand the Word of God and this is what is required of you. The same will be if I do not love God, I would never be able to pass to you His Word. So the law is the same for me and for you. When you love God, you will understand if what I am telling you is the Truth or not. If I love God, I will tell the Truth. When you do not understand the Word, it does not mean that you do not listen or hear but that you have no Love for God. And if you do not love Him, then the love for your wishes is very strong. And whatever you can be told it will be useless. So, when I speak and listen to you, the Love of God must be inside me. If I am speaking with this Love, I can transfer on everything; when I listening with this Love I can accept everything. The same happens to you: if you listen with the Love of God you can understand everything and if you speak with God’s Love you can express everything.

All the people want to listen and talk having God’s Love inside them, but what do they do instead? They take an empty pitcher, put it under the spout of a source and listen as it fills up, murmuring. After filling up the pitcher, they put a cork on it, put a label on and write a label: “In this pitcher there is such and such quantity of water from this or that source at this or that date.” A professor comes, opens the pitcher and begins to teach the students. When the water from the pitcher finishes, the professor also will finish his lecture. Now, he becomes a student again and has to go to the spring to put the empty pitcher under the spout and listen to the sound of the water: ”kul-kul-kul’. The professor takes the pitcher to the university, where he will have his second lecture the next day. This is an objective lesson teaching.

Let us now put aside the topic about the meaning of Life that young people ask so often about. What is important for you is to speak and listen to God’s Love when you enter the world. However, what happens? One enters the world wishing to improve it, to set it right but gets into contradiction with other people. If you go to the world you should first of all deal with yourself and check if your Love for God is stronger than your wish and thought. As soon as you come to terms with yourself, as soon as you try, only then can you talk to people. You will tell them then, that if they want to be joyful and gay and to have on their side all elevated, good and reasonable people, they should Love God more than all their wishes.

One sister told me: “I came to the Lakes to these high places and this pure air to refresh myself, to solve a problem.” I asked her: “How will you solve it?” “I will pray to God constantly.” I say: you can pray throughout the day but it is an external prayer. The true prayer can be expressed through Love. You need to ask the question: “Am I able to Love God more than my wishes?” The meaning of Life is in the Love for God. Man was born to Love God and to make an imprint of this Love upon his life and not to be people’s servant. If you achieve this, all your problems will be solved. This is the meaning of the verse of Christ: “This is everlasting Life to know You the Only true God.” When one has Love for God, wherever he goes the path will always be open – even into hell among the sinners he will be joyful and gay forever.

I will not wish you to achieve this now but will ask you if you love God. You say: “How can you recognize who loves God?” If you do Love God, you will be like that boy, riding a donkey and catching up to an old man, who began talking to him:
- Let us boy have a talk about things that can be possible.

The boy replied:
- All right, we can have a talk.
- Well, my boy, come down from the donkey and let me ride for a while, because I feel tired after the long walk.
- All right, it can be.

The boy got down right away and the old man got up on the donkey. After a long walk the boy felt tired and said to the man:
- Let us talk again about things that are possible. Let me now ride the donkey to have some rest and you can get down.
- Oh, no, my boy, it is not possible!
So it was possible for the old man to get on the donkey but not possible to get down.

I wish you now to be young like the boy and ready to get down from the donkey when someone would like to talk with you about possible things. I do not wish you to feel old like that man and not be willing to get down from the donkey if someone wanted to talk with you about possible things. The one who has learnt only to get up on the donkey and not to get down, he cannot achieve anything. If you can get up, you will know how to get down and this means humbleness. You will come down, and will stand on your legs. i.e. on the law of Love and will say: “For God I am ready to do everything.” When you say you are ready to do everything for God, this does not mean that you are engaged for thousands and millions of years but right now at this moment for one thousand part of the second. If someone is thinking to do something bad to another person, he will be fighting within himself, will be thinking and in the end will decide: “My Love for God is stronger than any of my wishes or thoughts.” This is what it means for one to Love God. What would it cost him to choose the right, the good path? What is better than being young? The old man will meet you and will say: “Son, let us talk about possible things.” – “Well, let’s talk.” Can we love God? - Yes, we can. Can we win through the world? - Yes, we can. Can we overcome all the difficulties? – We can. We can do everything when we have the Love of God inside us.

God is Love – the Reasonable source that has given everything in life. If we constantly keep this thought in mind, we will realize that our mind, heart, soul, Spirit have been given to us by God. Being aware of this fact we will be as right before God as He is before us. What would stop us from loving Him, realize all this, why not love The One who has given us everything? When we have a mind, heart, soul and Spirit, what more would we like? The mind given to us by God can be supported only through Divine thoughts; the heart, given to us by God can be supported only by Divine feelings; the soul given to us by God can develop only with the beautiful and good things that come from God. This is the only way our minds, hearts and souls can give fruit.

I say: the first relation of man is for God and the second is for his fellowman. If the first one would not exist, the second would not exist either. A young man meets an ugly woman and goes by not looking at her at all. She says to him: “You do not look at me and do not love me because I am ugly.” – “I do not love you not because you are ugly but because you are not virtuous.” And there is actually an ugliness in the world, which you are not able to love. The same young man meets later a beautiful young woman, looks at her, thinks for a while and goes on. She asks him: “You looked at me because you love me and you love me because I am beautiful.” The man replies: “It was not because I love you, I only looked at you and thought, because you are beautiful but not virtuous.” Therefore, there is a beauty in the world that you cannot love. The same man meets later another woman and says to her: “I can love you because you are virtuous.” So, man should be virtuous. By the word virtuous I mean the Divine in man. One can be ugly outside but he must be virtuous inside. The ugliness is nothing but a test for man and there is something beautiful hidden behind. Everywhere something exists deluding people and deceiving them to change their opinion about things, because things are not as they appear to be. The true beauty as well as the power of Life is in Love.

One can say: “It is cheap to stay here on Rila Mountain, we have spent very little money.” The matter is not about money – whether you have spent a little or a lot. What is important is do you use the time properly. If you stay here not doing the Will of God, your coming here is useless. You came because of the pure air but you also have to express your Love for God. Does this cost a lot? First of all, you are now at the crossroad. What does it cost you to go in the direction leading to the right path? You say: “It is a long way!” If one goes without Love, the path is long and difficult and the desires are unattainable. When you keep the Love of God within you, whatever happens in life will be transformed as Good.

I am telling you now how Angels, saints, good and reasonable people live. I also describe to you, in a very light way what the Divine world is like. There are very few people on Earth whose life is Divine. If there are these kind of people, even if they are a few, you can also live like them. I am not interested how the present day people live. A true man for me is the one who has Love for God within. The very moment one has identified himself and begins loving God, he has defined himself as man. Such a man attracts the attention of others who are good and sensible people who say: “There is something Divine that happens today!” The one who has not Loved God has not become a true man; he can eat and drink but no one will be interested in him. The moment you feel you have Love for God, this is the most glorious moment in your life. This means to flourish, to scatter your fragrance; it means to burst as a source that only gives. At this moment all reasonable desires will be attainable.

You say: “This work is very hard.” Why? Because you have slept, i.e. have put a lot of soil above your seed. I say: put on only one or two centimetres of soil, do not dig it and you will see it growing in some time. Do not bury your desires too deep! You say: “We wish to be scholars.” Studying too much makes you suffer. – “We want to be powerful.” You are, anyway. You need one thing - to have Love for God!

There were two fishermen coming to fish over the lake a few days ago. We were working nearby and could look the fish playing in the water. Some fell victim to the fishermen and were caught in their fishing nets. I say: there is sense in sacrificing the fish if she moves to better conditions; however she goes into one’s stomach. The next day the fishermen went to the lake again and were trying the whole day to catch fish but they couldn’t – the fish did not make the mistake to come out. The fishermen were evangelicals but materialists. They said: “Now we will stay hungry.” We gave them some food and they became calm. I say: who goes with God, will have fish and bread too; without God there will be nothing.

Someone says: ”I have converted one to God.” How have you done this? – like the fisherman who takes the fish. You have taken the man into your net, baked him and then ate him. If you have improved the conditions, the life of this man, the conversion is meaningful. You may do the same with your wishes – take them one by one into your net, put them on fire and eat them then. They will process inside you and come out later.

The fishermen represent the people of the old life and Christ used to tell them: “I will make you fishers of men now.” You are also preaching a new teaching now, but you still remain at the lake’s edge with your fishnets saying: “Let us take at least one fish!” You think that if you take three or four kilos of trout you will be provided for. No, you will not be provided for but will be fishermen forever and will stay hungry. In the New life man should live according to the law of Love. The one, who goes on this Path, will be content by taking only one sheat-fish.

This lecture that I am giving you now, is a serious one. If you have understood it, you will be able to apply it to yourselves and tell it to others as well. If you apply this lecture, it will make your life significant. Life can be meaningful only with God’s Love. It is like a small sparkle of fire, shed in time and in the right place. When it will be like this it produces happiness in Life. If it would fall not in time and in place, it produces unhappiness.

Lecture held by Petar Deunov (Beinsa Douno) on July 12, 1931,
St. Peter’s day, 5 o’clock